GSG initiates emergency fund for foreign students
After President Donald Trump’s executive orders restricting travelers from majority-Muslim countries and increasing the detention of undocumented immigrants, students have expressed their concerns about their ability to travel in and out of the country.
The Graduate Student Government has responded to these students by creating the GSG Emergency Fund for Undocumented and International Students. The resolution, which was drafted by the USC Price Student Organization Coalition, will allocate $20,000 in emergency funding for students facing student visa issues because of Trump’s policies, and also will also help students who benefit from the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals by paying the fees to renew their status, according to a proposal sent to the Daily Trojan.
“The resolution is denouncing President Trump’s executive order restricting the refugee resettlement program and travel from the seven Muslim-majority countries,” said Christina Gutierrez, one of the co-founders of the Price Student Organization Coalition. “[It] reaffirms support for refugees, Muslim immigrants and religious minorities.”
According to GSG, the initiative will provide a maximum of $700 per student to help with visa-, DACA- and other renewal-related costs, as well as legal fees and other expenses. GSG also stated its commitment to ensuring strict confidentiality with applicant records and promised to delete any personal information they receive within two days of distributing funds.
“No administration money is going into it, it’s our funding as Graduate Student Government, and part of that funding comes from international and undocumented students,” said GSG Director of Campus Affairs Christopher Lo-Records. “[The fund is] carryover, so it’s excess money that we have left over after seeding to our core programs.”
Because the emergency fund is run by GSG, undergraduate students will not have access to the funds.
“We’re the only branch of student government doing this, which means that undergraduate students are not being served to the same extent that graduate students are,” Records said. “I think that USG bears a responsibility to do what we’ve done.”
Records also stated that USC’s large international population means that the University has a duty to fight for inclusion and justice for foreign and undocumented students. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 252 students from countries banned by Trump’s executive action go to the University.
“We have a particular role to play because [USC is] so reliant on international students,” Records said. “We have a responsibility to be even more vocal and even more of a leader to advocate for this.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article stated Christina Gutierrez was a founder of the Price Student Organization Coalition. She was actually the co-founder along with Victor Sanchez, Britney Wise, Anna Evans Goldstein, Nick Weinmeister, Andrew Lamotte and Nadia Kelifa.
International Students and students here illegally (whom many continue to call “undocumented”) are not the same thing, unless as stated above, the international student does not have a valid student visa and is therefore here illegally. Everybody needs to pull it together and get a grip on reality. Concepts like visas, passports, green cards, citizenship, etc are all very important an meaningful. Democrats and others who continue to support illegal immigration are cheapening these important concepts, and promoting different standards of enforcement for different people. Consider this: A person who comes to the US on a visa, but then overstays their visa, is rightfully subject to deportation, and is not permitted to reapply for 10 years. Meanwhile, we see that illegal immigrants who came here with no visa or any documentation are “demanding” citizenship! It’s completely unacceptable! That is true injustice!
The President has issued a TEMPORARY TRAVEL BAN from 6 nations that have been identified by this administration AND the previous administration as lacking acceptable vetting procedures for travelers. The current executive order includes exemptions which are expressly cited. Among those are notably, persons with valid visas. All international students at USC, including those from the countries listed on the temporary travel ban, are required to possess valid student visas (or alternative documentation such as a valid green card). If they have a valid student visa, then they are exempted from the TEMPORARY TRAVEL BAN. Such students have nothing to fear, and suggestions by politically motivated groups (including attorney activists) are irresponsible and misleading. It’s disgusting
What’s really disgusting is the fact that “the President” (don’t seem to remember your kind extending that honorific to #44) wanted a Muslim ban, completely botched the previous one (because he thinks the law consists of him opening those fish lips and issuing commands) and now sugarcoats turd #2 with vagueness. So yeah, sure, the text says 120 days. 120 days in which “the President” will go through 1,000 different moods and tweet countless stupidities and say anything he damn well pleases depending on what he sees in Breitbart. And then he’ll renew it, because that’s the constant with this guy. He changes moods and minds and opinions (along with wives, mistresses, 6 foot long ties, sexual fantasies about his daughter, and toupees) on most things, but the core viciousness remains the same. He was a racist and a sexist yesterday; he’ll be one tomorrow. Just as he was a liar yesterday and will be one tomorrow.
As far as undocumented students, what a load of crap you’re spouting. I’m sick to death of people whose ancestors came here when there weren’t actually any meaningful controls on immigration talking about how everyone else (including children who came here at 3 or 4 years old) needs to obey “the law.” My great-grandparents came here in the 1890s. They didn’t have to wait in line. They got on a boat and went to Ellis Island and bam, they were Americans. That’s the way it was, up until the nativists took charge of immigration policy in 1920s and did what they good to keep the country Anglo. Gee, what a success that was, huh? No doubt President Know Nothing will be just as successful in attempt #2.
But there’s no point arguing about it. You want your permanently excluded underclass and your militarized border, so there you go. Build your wall. Pay for it. Tax me for it. See what it gets you. Because it’ll be a big fat bag of nothing. You want Big Daddy to get the jobs to come pouring back and the factories to magically reopen and the country to magically return to lily whiteness and you want girls to be girls and men to be men and Archie Bunker at the piano and good luck to you. I just want whatever you’re smoking (which is legal, because this is California).
FINALLY… now that we’ve cleared up some facts, back to my original response to this particular article. Any president has the right to halt immigration and travel to our country at any time. The constitutional statute actually reads that the president may suspend immigration and travel to the US for “any person or any class of people” at his election, and may suspend that right “for such a period as he deems necessary”. Don’t be fooled by your own hatred for Donald Trump. If President Obama had made this executive order, we would not even be talking about this. So, in review… all i was saying is that it is WRONG, and IRRESPONSIBLE to be stoking fear among students at USC or any university because if they are here under valid student visas or green cards (as they should be… as I was when i was a student at USC)… then they have nothing to fear.
2. There is no vagueness with his second executive order. It is crystal clear, but rather than read the text of the order, you and others have chosen to interpret sub-text.
Christopher… I’ve been trying to post replies to your comment and they are being deleted. Very disturbing. I enjoy open, fair and honest debate… but it seems you won’t be able to see my replies because they are being removed.
There you go. It was emailed to me. Don’t know whether admin deleted it or you did that so you could do the whole “You’re all delicate, censoring snowflakes and I’m a big, brave, principled person being persecuted” thing.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cbdcc1c2fadd4381121388461df5a94ba367015ff3c9157d7f03804ab9f39940.png
You’re killing me man! Why are you continuing with the personal attacks (“Archie Bunker” etc). Delicate flower… Snowflakes.. Persecuted? Why are you even suggesting that I would lie about whether or not I removed it or DT did? I promise you I do not post, then delete, then complain like a delicate flower! None of that helps your cause in an intelligent debate.
Anyway… Glad you were at least able to read my reply. You just can’t presume things about people when you go on the attack. I don’t presume or attack. I post comments in open and honest debate over the issue at hand. Trump has done a lot of things wrong (and will continue to I’m sure)… But there will also be things he gets right. In fact, in the end, that’s sort of how it is with most presidents.
And here are my responses:
1. Yep. I hate Trump. Lot of good reasons to. He’s a terrible, rotten, greedy, disgusting person.
2. It is vague. It is vague when it supposedly exempts students with valid visas from the six countries but totally leaves out the matter of what happens when those visas expire. Do those students have any chance of receiving a visa renewal, even when they might not be finished with their programs yet? Do they have to wait for Trump to make up his mind about whether to extend it for another 120 days? It’s totally unmentioned.
3. Hooray for you for pulling the Milo card (I’m gay, therefore you can’t attack me for being hateful). I’ve looked through previous comments of yours denying that Transgender people have legitimate identities. So, yeah, maybe you’re fine with conservative, white gay men, but you’ve obviously got a problem with queerness. And maybe that’s even worse than when straight folks hate on LGBTQ people, because you have a sense of what marginalization feels like and yet fail to extend it to other people who deserve the same understanding that you’ve asked for.
4. Whatever.
5. So, “the law of the time” should never be challenged or changed then? There goes all forms of civil and incivil disobedience in Western History. The Reformation, the American and French Revolutions, the Civil War, Civil Rights, Gay Rights, etc. Gone, because we have to be obedient to “the law of the time.”
1. Again, you are certainly entitled to this position. (One shared by many.)
2. Correct. Whenever anyone’s student visa expires, they have to apply for a renewal. That renewal can be approved or denied. If denied, they must leave the country. That has been the law for a long time. Again, I think you are operating from the wrong premise that people are entitled to visas. They are not. They can be denied, and even revoked. None of that existing law and policy has anything to do with Trump.
3. Milo is gross and I am not a fan or supporter of his. Yes, you did correctly read my position (and science’s position) on so-called “transgenders”. In review: Sexuality does occur on a spectrum… but gender is binary. Drop the T and the Q. “LGB” is the truth. If you indeed read all of my other commentary on this subject you would see that i explain the need for compassion for people who suffer this disorder (just like we must have compassion for people with any disorder).. But we must not pretend that this is normal.. and we certainly arent’ helping them out by indulging them in a lie. (You cracked me up with the bit about me wanting “men to be men and girls to be girls”… as if that’s a problem.)
4. You’re welcome.
5. You totally misunderstood this point. My point is not that we don’t have the right to challenge laws… what i’m saying is that using past laws in your argument is meaningless. Borders and boundries etc have changed around the world all the time, through wars, and treaties and (as you mentioned) simple manifest destiny. But how things worked then is not the same as how things work now. For example: Years ago, the area of Orange County known as “Newport Coast” was unincorporated county territory. Then later, the city of Newport Beach annexed that land, and it is now part of the City limits… and residents there are NOW subject to city ordinances and taxes etc… NOT county ordinances and taxes as they used to be. Your logic would suggest that a resident there can simply say “well, I will abide by county rule, not city rule, because i was here when this was county land”.
The President has issued a TEMPORARY TRAVEL BAN from 6 nations that have been identified by this administration AND the previous administration as lacking acceptable vetting procedures for travelers. The current executive order includes exemptions which are expressly cited. Among those are notably, persons with valid visas. All international students at USC, including those from the countries listed on the temporary travel ban, are required to possess valid student visas (or alternative documentation such as a valid green card). If they have a valid student visa, then they are exempted from the TEMPORARY TRAVEL BAN. Such students have nothing to fear, and suggestions by politically motivated groups (including attorney activists) are irresponsible and misleading. It’s disgusting
Of course if international students do not have valid student visas, then they should be very afraid, and no attorney worth his or her license should be promising or suggesting otherwise.
The lies have to stop. I get it. People hate the President… But presenting lies and stoking fear is not acceptable.
Meanwhile: International Students and students here illegally (whom many continue to call “undocumented”) are not the same thing, unless as stated above, the international student does not have a valid student visa and is therefore here illegally. Everybody needs to pull it together and get a grip on reality. Concepts like visas, passports, green cards, citizenship, etc are all very important an meaningful. Democrats and others who continue to support illegal immigration are cheapening these important concepts, and promoting different standards of enforcement for different people. Consider this: A person who comes to the US on a visa, but then overstays their visa, is rightfully subject to deportation, and is not permitted to reapply for 10 years. Meanwhile, we see that illegal immigrants who came here with no visa or any documentation are “demanding” citizenship! It’s completely unacceptable! That is true injustice!
Finally, please note that there is no RIGHT to travel in and out of any country. That’s another lie. Travel in and out of almost any nation is a privilege that can be revoked or regulated at any time in a number of ways. Law must be made by Congress, but the President is granted a fair bit of latitude in regulating said law. As we know, the previous administration chose, at it’s election, policies of “looking the other way”. Thankfully the current administration is choosing not to look the other way, but instead to enforce existing immigration law almost across the board. That is inherently a more fair policy. Stop the lies and hysteria.
Stop the lies and histrionics. The President has issued a TEMPORARY TRAVEL BAN from 6 nations that have been identified by this administration AND the previous administration as lacking acceptable vetting procedures for travelers. The current executive order includes exemptions which are expressly cited. Among those are notably, persons with valid visas. All international students at USC, including those from the countries listed on the temporary travel ban, are required to possess valid student visas. If they have a valid student visa, then they are exempted from the TEMPORARY TRAVEL BAN. Such students have nothing to fear, and suggestions by politically motivated groups (including attorney activists) are being irresponsible and misleading. It’s disgusting!
Of course if international students do not have valid student visas, then they should be very afraid, and no attorney worth his or her license should be promising or suggesting otherwise.
The lies have to stop. I get it. People hate the President… But presenting lies and stoking fear is not acceptable.
Meanwhile: International Students and students here illegally (whom many continue to call “undocumented”) are not the same thing, unless as stated above, the international student does not have a valid student visa and is therefore here illegally. Everybody needs to pull it together and get a grip on reality. Concepts like visas, passports, green cards, citizenship, etc are all very important an meaningful. Democrats and others who continue to support illegal immigration are cheapening these important concepts, and promoting different standards of enforcement for different people.
Finally, please note that there is no RIGHT to travel in and out of any country. Travel in and out of almost any nation is a privilege that can be revoked or regulated at any time in a number of ways. Stop the lies and hysteria.